New HRM procurement policy hits snag
Halifax regional council passed a new, streamlined policy for procuring goods, services and projects Tuesday.
The policy, supported by a new administrative order, was intended to introduce social value considerations for bids on tenders and to fully comply with trade agreements.
Presented in a report by procurement manager Jane Pryor, the policy generated a lengthy council discussion and was deemed to have fallen short in one key area.
The new policy stipulated that the HRM procurement branch and applicable HRM departments would “work together to include, where appropriate, social considerations in the evaluation criteria and/or contract requirements such as fair wages, diversity of ownership, workforce and values, workforce development and training, social enterprise, community development and environmental responsibility.”
Not good enough, said Coun. Shawn Cleary (Halifax West-armdale).
“What we are looking for is to make sure we have some teeth in this policy,” said Cleary, who added an amendment to the policy.
“If we don't have any criteria developed, then my fear would be that we never accomplish the goals that we are setting out. It's just wishywashy to make the kind of changes of we're looking for.
“My issue was just the discretion that the managers, the department heads and procurement have if all they have to aim for is ‘we'll consider it' and it just says in there, where appropriate. Well, what's appropriate, I want to know what you are going to be basing your decision on whether or not to include social procurement. I want them to actually document that so that we can hold them accountable.”
Cleary's amendment, which passed along with the main motion, requested a supplementary staff report that develops general criteria for what are appropriate situations for applying social procurement and to define or quantify what is a fair wage that would be considered.
That report will come back to council in the fall, along with further guidelines for the policy.
The goals of social procurement are to enhance community health and well-being by advancing inclusion, equity and diversity, the staff report concluded.
Social procurement will increase economic opportunities by expanding participation of diverse and social value businesses in the municipality's supply chain, improve economic independence and capacity by increasing employment and training opportunities for underemployed, unemployed and under-represented populations and support community considerations in the supply chain and encourage environmental sustainability.
A change in responsibility is also part of the new policy, including the requirement for municipal departments to take full responsibility for procuring purchases under $10,000.
The new policy states that the municipality is not obligated to award contracts based on price alone but can include a variety of published evaluation considerations such as social value, quality and cost.
Halifax Public Libraries have been removed from the policy because they are a separate public sector entity, empowered to adopt their own policies and procedures.
The proposed disposal of surplus assets policy has also been removed from procurements and added to another administrative order passed by council as part of the overall motion. Surplus assets do not fall under procurement, the staff report stated.
In other business, council approved a temporary operating loan from the province to assure that the municipality remain liquid despite the lost revenues from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is to pay the bills,” said Jane Fraser, chief financial officer for the municipality.
The loan, available under a program from the Nova Scotia Municipal Finance Corporation to help the 49 municipalities across Nova Scotia, is not to exceed $130 million with a term of five years or less. The interest rate will not exceed 1.3 per cent.
Council approved 41 awards for a combined total of $370,804 under its community grants program that provides project-specific funding across eight categories to eligible registered non-profit organizations and charities located within the HRM geographic boundary.